Tag: Janice Angelillo

As has been mentioned a few times on this site, animal rights activist Janice Angelillo and Nicholas Cooney were arrested in July after being caught prowling around outside a Hoffman-LaRoche facility at 4 a.m. They both had white paint on their clothes and hands — the same color paint used earlier in the morning to vandalize another site with anti-Hoffman-LaRoche slogans.

The two were also charged with spray painting the home and car of a New Jersey man with “scum,” “puppy killers” and “blood money.” Apparently Angelillo and Cooney believed that the man who owns the car and home was an executive at Huntingdon Life Sciences.

It turns out, however, that the man is simply a real estate agent who has a name very similar to an executive who works at HLS.

This is why activists regularly brag about their high levels of compassion rather than high levels of intelligence.

On July 21 at 4 a.m., animal rights activists Janice Angelillo and Nicholas Cooney were arrested outside a Hoffman-LaRoche facility in New Jersey. When she was arrested, police say the hands and clothing of both activists was stained with the same color spray paint has had been used in an earlier act of anti-Hoffman-LaRoche vandalism that morning.

Police subsequently deployed a 15-officer team to raid Angelillo’s residence. The officers removed a computer and other items from the residence.

In Angelillo’s world, however, she’s not under scrutiny because of the spray paint incident — just the latest in a long series of arrests for Angelillo — but rather she’s being persecuted for her beliefs. Angelillo told the Home News Tribune,

I feel like I’m being targeted for my political beliefs because I’m rather vocal and a public advocate for animal rights. It feels almost like harassment. I really don’t understand why they sent in a big SWAT team and raided my house all because I was brought up on misdemeanor charges. I think it was kind of outrageous.

Whereas prowling around Hoffman-LaRoche at 4 a.m. in the morning with the intent to commit acts of vandalism is simply a normal morning activity for Angelillo.

Angelillo and Cooney have been charged with giving fake identities to police, criminal mischief, criminal trespassing and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. They will also be charged with criminal mischief for an act of vandalism that occurred in Long Beach, New Jersey, within 24 hours of the July 21st arrest.

The raid on Angelillo’s residence is clearly based on suspicions that Angelillo and/or Cooney have been involved with or have information about other animal rights related crimes committed in Pennsylvania, where Cooney lives.

Police also appear to be investigating whether Angelillo’s husband Ted Nebus might be involved in any acts of vandalism. A police spokesman told the Home News Tribune,

Our first encounter with him [Nebus] was when we executed a search warrant at the house (on Saturday). Prior to that, he’s not been a suspect, although he may become a suspect based on our examination of the evidence that we recovered from the house.

Nine adult activists arrested in a May 29 protest plead guilty to reduced charges of harassment and disorderly conduct charges and agreed to pay $400 fine stemming from their actions.

Two of the protesters, Nicholas Cooney and Alexandra Deyo, had been charged with a corruption of minors, but that charge was dropped after the minor in question testified that she participated in the protest willingly and that her parents knew she was going to attend an animal rights protest, although they were unaware of the exact location of the protest. Saying that the state had failed to prove intent, Judge Daniel Maisano threw out the charges.

After testimony about the protest, Maisano reduced the charges based in part on his view that the protest was poorly organized. In issuing the $400 fines, Maisano told the activists,

It’s my understanding that this was the most poorly organized protest I’ve seen. I can’t tell you not to go to his street and stand there with signs, because if you do it the right way, it’s legal. I am going to say, you shouldn’t do it. You have to balance your rights with others.’

Nine adult and two minor animal rights activists were arrested in Chester County, Pennsylvania on May 29 as they protested outside the home of Forrest Sheffy, an executive with Johnson Matthey Pharmaceutical Materials.

ItÂ’s our experience and a product of years of social research that says they donÂ’t listen when you protest at a business, but they do listen when you protest at their homes.

Our theory is, without customers, the company cannot continue to break the law, therefore Johnson Matthey needs to be stopped (in order) to stop Huntingdon.

A spokesman for Johnson Matthey, however, said the company does not currently have any business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Sheffy called police and told the Local Daily News,

It wasnÂ’t subtle, it was basically terrorism. They scared my kid and they scared the children in the neighborhood. I called the police right away because you let the professionals deal with this type of thing. It was totally inappropriate.

The activists were charged with criminal conspiracy, harassment, disorderly conduct. In addition, Cooney and Deyo were charged with corruption of minors due to the presence of the two juveniles arrested. Deyo told the Local Daily News that neither she nor Cooney were aware that the two individuals in question were minors.

State Police Cpl. Bill LaTorre told the Local Daily News, however, that the corruption of minors charges against the two were only added after consulting with the parents of the two minors,

It was indeed a corruption of minors. These kids were led to believe they were doing something in the city and ended up on private property in suburban Chester County. They (the parents) believed there was an appropriate time and place for this type of behavior and the minors were led to believe it was occurring under different circumstances.